News Classrooms engage local community

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Potash Hill

Creating a culture of civic-mindedness at Marlboro starts with Town Meeting, active committees, Work Day and a celebrated respect for others, but too often it stops at the college boundary. A campus-wide effort to engage the wider communities of Marlboro, Brattleboro and Vermont is being led by four faculty members, with grant support from the Charles Engelhard and Christian A. Johnson Endeavor foundations. In classes this fall, each faculty member found that venturing outside the classroom walls not only enriches the learning of students, but creates closer ties that will benefit both college and community.

Biology professor Jenny Ramstetter '81 teaches a General Ecology course every two years that includes visits to local sites of ecological interest. But Jenny wanted to include the possibility of more in-depth study at a single location and settled on Hogback Mountain, four miles west on Route 9. This fall her class collaborated with the junior high at Marlboro Elementary School and members of the Hogback Mountain Conservation Association on field research at Hogback.

"Our primary goals are for students in my ecology course and in the local junior high class to begin to understand the ecology of Hogback Mountain and to establish a framework for ongoing collaboration over the years at this site," said Jenny. "It's exciting to see the students sharing their discoveries and learning from each other."

Students worked together onsite in small groups with Jenny, lab instructor Allison Turner M.S. '99 and several invited experts. These included Tom Wessels, author of Reading the Forested Landscape, George Leoniak '05 and Marlboro resident Bob Anderson. Student interactions with Bob, who was instrumental in spearheading the Hogback Mountain Conservation Association (HMCA), provided for a growing reciprocity between school and town communities.

"HMCA has worked over the past three years to conserve more than 500 acres of land on Hogback Mountain that was slated for development," said Jenny, who was a member of the town conservation commission when it helped initiate community involvement in conserving land on Hogback. The HMCA has secured state, federal and private funding for the purchase of the land, gained town-wide support and town funding for the purchase and provided opportunities for community participation through events celebrating the human and natural history of Hogback.

"The triangle created by a community-based organization, a local public school and an institution of higher education working together has proven to be a strong form of collaboration for building community initiatives," said Carol Berner, who teaches education at Smith College and Antioch University New England and was a panelist at October's conservation symposium. "Each partner in the collaboration brings a distinct form of local knowledge."

"Our students have not only begun to develop a firsthand understanding of the ecology of Hogback Mountain, they have also learned about the impressive conservation effort by the greater Marlboro community," said Jenny. "My hope is that they will be well-positioned to think about questions in field ecology and contribute to community conservation efforts in the future."

Photography professor John Willis also used the community engagement grant to expand on existing programs, this time the collaboration of Marlboro students with younger peers at the In-Sight Photography Program. In-Sight offers Brattleboro-area youth a creative outlet to develop a visual language and learn more about themselves. This fall John's students helped guide an In-Sight group interacting with middle school students at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

"The process facilitates discussion that results in deeper consideration of one's community, awareness, tolerance and appreciation for diversity," said John. Participants shared thoughts and images through a group blog, responding to agreed-upon assignments and the work of peers. Other community engagement projects were pioneered by anthropology professor Carol Hendrickson and philosophy professor William Edelglass. Carol's Food and Culture class visited local artisanal food producers and an NGO focusing on eating locally, while William's Buddhist Philosophy course made site visits to several local Buddhist centers.

"The visits allowed students to engage with the wider community and to recognize the relevance of what we're learning in the classroom to the lives of many people in the surrounding area," said William. "Students were able to enrich and expand their sense of place and develop a sense of connection to the local community."